TENDERINI, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO, venerable. - Bishop of Civita Castellana and Orte, b. at Carrara on 17 Oct. 1668, d. on 1 March 1739 at Civita Castellana.
He received his doctorate in utroque iure at the age of only nineteen at the University of Pisa, then practised law in Florence. From 1691 he was in Rome as auditor to Prince Savelli and Cardinal Casini. At the age of twenty-seven he felt a vocation to the priesthood and, after studying philosophy at the Gregorian University and theology at the Minerva, he was ordained priest on 9 Nov. 1698. Esteemed by the popes, he was offered the sees of Fidenza and Foligno, Osimo and Cingoli, which he refused. Clement XI succeeded in entrusting to him the united dioceses of Civita Castellana and Orte (1718). At the Council of Rome (1725), by order of Benedict XIII, he delivered the closing address, to the admiration of all, and was rewarded with appointment as Assistant to the Throne.
A man of extraordinary zeal, he spiritually renewed his dioceses. In constant contact with the saints of his time (St Paul of the Cross, St Giovanni Battista De Rossi, St Leonardo da Porto Maurizio), he imitated their example. At his death St Leonardo expressed a highly favourable judgment on T.'s holiness. His cause of beatification and canonization was introduced on 23 Dec. 1756, and the decree on his virtues was issued on 5 Aug. 1794.